Thomas Weinhart

About Me

I studied Mathematics at the Technische Universität München in Germany (B.Sc. in 2004), and at Virginia Tech in the USA (M.Sc. in 2005 and Ph.D. in 2009).

I am most interested in numerical and analytical material modelling. My research is based on applying concepts of applied mathematics to the field of granular mechanics. I am working on improved material models for particulates, developing microscopic contact laws between individual particles, as well as rheological laws for macroscopic continuous flows. One of these rheological laws now provides the basis for a shallow-water model of granular avalanches; another law describes the mechanism of particle segregation in granular two-phase flows. I have also worked on several numerical improvements to the Discrete Particle Method, such as steady inflow and complex boundary conditions.

I am recognised in the granular field for having developed a new and efficient technique to couple micro- and macro-scale models for particulate flows, and for having developed implementations for the Discrete Particle Method and the Finite Element Method. In particular MercuryDPM is now a well-used open-source tool in the granular community, and is utilised by industry through our spin-off company MercuryLab. My knowledge of particulate systems on both the micro- and macro-scale and their coupling has led to many successful collaborations with experimental and other modelling groups. I further work on numerical methods for simulating transport phenomena, such as error estimators which I use for adaptive mesh refinement in finite element methods.